Christmas Spirit
by thedeliverygod
Summary: Hiyori, Yato, and Yukine decorate cookies to get in the Christmas mood.


**My Secret Santa gift for ghastlygraceful!**

 _Christmas Spirit_

"Hiyoooriiiiiii."

She heard Yato's voice call loudly from the other side of the house, guessing he was probably on the staircase or else still upstairs.

"I'm in the kitchen!" She yelled back, setting out the bowls of icing and sprinkles on the counter.

Yato popped into the kitchen first, nearly sliding across the floor in his socks, greeting her cheerily, "Hiyori~,"

"Hey." Yukine stepped in and raised his hand for a small wave, "I told him to use the front door, but you know him…"

Hiyori shook her head, continuing to organize everything, "It's okay, Yukine-kun." Glancing back to Yato, she commented, "At least you took your shoes off this time."

"Since you actually invited us over, I figured we'd be staying for a bit." He came closer and peered over at what she was doing, "So what're you working on?"

She set the last of her things down on the counter before waving over all of it, "I made cookies for Christmas dinner at Kofuku-san's so I was hoping you two could help me decorate them." Locking eyes with Yato, she added, "I thought you could make a few special ones for Santa Claus as well, Yato."

After she shot Yukine a quick look, he laughed nervously, "Great idea, Hiyori."

The god let out a serious of gasps before clapping his hands together excitedly, "Yeah! That sounds _amazing._ Thank you, Hiyori!"

"Yeah, thanks, especially since you did the hard part." Yukine joined the other two at the kitchen counter, looking down at the cookie sheets and all the decorations laid out, "This seems fun though."

Hiyori quickly waved her hands, "Oh, no, Yukine-kun. I think the decorating is probably harder than making the cookies themselves. But it is fun, I promise."

He blinked in surprise, "Oh? Really?"

"I guess it depends on how intricate you want to get with it." As she spoke, Yato had already jumped headfirst into spreading icing across the edges of his first cookie. Leaning down to inspect his work, she commented, "And knowing you, I'm guessing you're going to go overboard."

"Duh. Only the best for Santa." He answered, not bothering to look up.

Yukine and Hiyori gave each other a look and forced a laugh. "Well, since _he_ knows what he's doing, apparently… can you show me, Hiyori?"

"Of course!" She nodded eagerly, grabbing a tube of white icing and handing it to Yukine before picking up one for herself as well followed by cookies for each of them, "Like Yato's doing, you've got to create a border of thicker icing first and let it dry a tiny bit. Then you can use the other icing to fill it in, and mix colors if you want too. I've also got regular icing like you'd put on a cake too, so you've got a plenty of options. Lots of sprinkles and other things too." Hiyori explained as she finished the border of the round cookie on the small wax sheet in front of her, moving on to a candy cane shaped one next.

"That doesn't sound too hard." He commented, picking a Christmas Tree shaped one as his first target. Though it wasn't long before he got to one of the pointy edges and the icing spilled over the edge and he mumbled, "Damn it."

A small laugh slipped out before Hiyori gave him an apologetic smile, "You've got to take your time with it, Yukine-kun."

He bit his lip sheepishly, "Yeah, sorry."

"It's okay. I've done this almost every year with my mom and Sasaki-san and I still manage to mess up at least once every time." She looked down to continue working on hers, "It's pretty easy to get carried away, especially when you're almost done."

Yukine blinked and took a step back from the counter, hesitating, "So wait, you're doing this with us instead of your family? You don't have to—"

Yato had frozen after she had made that comment as well, now staring over at both of them.

"No, no. I'll still do it with my family too, I just thought it'd be something fun for us to do together." She forced a laugh, "You know, something that doesn't involve being chased by ayakashi or cleaning people's houses. Plus I wanted to do something Christmas related. To, um, get more in the spirit I guess, since it'll be here in a few days."

"Some extra spirit wouldn't hurt." Yato answered in a grumble, going back to his work, "I figured you all would be way more excited after you saw Santa Claus was real last year. Especially after she came back later with more presents." He paused in thought, "Or maybe that was the regular Santa that came back later, I dunno since we were asleep. Either way. At least I didn't listen to you guys because if we _had_ gone to sleep as early as you were saying to, then _all_ of you would have missed the first one."

Yukine immediately narrowed his eyes and growled, taking a step closer, "You don't even _know_ —"

"Ah," Hiyori laughed nervously and gently pushed Yukine the other direction, urging him to continue on the cookies, "You're right, Yato. We never apologized. Sorry about all of that."

Yato's eyes flickered to hers briefly, "You couldn't have known, I guess. Especially if you learned the thing about going to sleep early from your parents."

"Mm." Hiyori nodded quietly.

After a minute or two of quiet, Yato paused and stared at the counter in front of him once he'd finished the initial borders around the cookies. "Say, Hiyori," He looked up timidly, "Could you help me?"

"You mean, you don't know how to do the next part?" She blinked and looked at him doubtingly, Yukine shooting him an annoyed look from behind her as well.

He hesitated, "Well, kinda, maybe." He flushed and turned his head the other direction, continuing in a mumble, "I just wanted to decorate one with you."

Yukine made a not so subtle gagging noise, quickly looking away and muttering, "Of course you do."

Hiyori momentarily froze in surprise before eventually taking a step forward with a soft smile, "Okay."

"Really?" The god's eyes lit up as he lifted his head.

"Well, I did say this is something I wanted us to do together, so…" She trailed off as she lingered beside him, her cheeks red as she carefully reached past him to pick up the blue icing.

He blinked, "Really, blue?"

"For the snowflake." She answered automatically, already starting, "I figured we could swirl in some white as well or something like that." Hiyori looked up sheepishly, "Yukine, are you watching?"

"I'll… just wait till you're done with him. Plus I've still got one more anyway." He didn't bother to look up, clearly embarrassed as well.

She let out a small laugh, "Okay."

As Yato took over, creating an extravagant design with white icing like she had suggested, Hiyori's eyes widened, "Wow, you really are making these perfect for Santa."

"Hmm?" He looked up briefly, "Oh, I'll work just as hard on the ones for Santa, too, but this one's reserved for me."

Hiyori nearly dropped everything in her hands and Yukine gave another loud groan.


End file.
